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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

This month we are partnering with musician Dave Scanlon and quilter Emma Banay on their collaborative project, Quilt Music. Dave and Emma are installing their project at Rhizome DC, a local arts and music venue where we will meet together on Saturday, February 17.

From the Rhizome website: "[Quilt Music] explores the commonalities between quilting & music, music & sculpture, and quilting & experimental arts. Scores/Instruction are created and then interpreted in both mediums. By focusing on theme & variation, wave length, rhythm, and form the scores/instructions lend themselves equally to both mediums. Such interdisciplinary work also highlights the temporal quality of music and the physicality of quilting."Dave and Emma invited DCMQG to make quilts from seven scores written by Dave. You can find the scores in this Google Drive.Here's a look at my mini-quilt in process, based on Score 3:

At our February meeting we will share our quilts and explore the intersection between quilting and music with Dave and Emma.Want to join the fun? No musical experience is required!Contact me (Cassandra) to arrange drop-off. Finished quilts should have triangles, a sleeve, or another easy way for hanging. You can also bring your quilt with you on the day-of, and it can be unfinished!

Thursday, February 8, 2018

I'm writing to enlist your help for our charity sewing effort in partnership with a Space of Her Own to make a total of 13 approximately twin-sized quilts for the girls in the program by the beginning of June.

A Space of Her Own is an organization that mentors 5th grade girls at risk of entering the juvenile court system. The girls are chosen for the program based on adverse factors that contribute to the risk of entering the justice system. Many of the girls are from immigrant families, low socio-economic status, and/or living with relatives other than their parents. The purpose of the program is to teach life skills to the girls, provide the girls with mentors, and also to learn STEAM projects. Those who complete the program have an opportunity to create or update a space of her own. The program runs the length of the school year.

We are aiming for all of these quilts to be at least 60" x 70", though we have three quilts already completed that are just slightly smaller but too perfect not to use (quilts by Laurie, Gretchen, and Diana). We also have a beautiful queen-sized quilt by Amy S. that may work for one of the girls. Our goal is to have the quilt tops completed by our March 17th meeting so that we can get them to other volunteers who are willing to quilt them, and to have time to bind them by yet more volunteers. There are so many opportunities here to get involved!

So far, Amy C. has volunteered to piece 3-4 quilts (1 of which she will also quilt), Lynne has volunteered to coordinate/make a quilt top, Robin has volunteered to make a quilt, Jennifer has volunteered to long-arm 2-4 of the quilts, Cindy has volunteered to quilt 1-2 quilts and will bind and donate the one pictured below, and Anjeanette has volunteered to long-arm meander 1 of the quilts. We may need a few more quilting volunteers. Amy and I are also volunteering to pick up the slack and do whatever needs to be done to get this finished, even if that means lots of hand-sewing bindings (or maybe someone with a fancy Bernina can bind them the way Denise demonstrated at the fall retreat - hint hint!)! Ideally, we would have at least 3 more people volunteer to coordinate/piece a top. The coordinator can ask for blocks from the guild. We would also love it if anyone had appropriate fabrics to donate for the backs of the quilts, though we may have some good choices in our charity box or we'll purchase some solids.

Here are the requests that the girls have made, along with some pictures and notes about potential matches for the quilts:

1. C.R.: Her favorite spark is swimming and her favorite color blue - specifically aqua. She also loves galaxy colors (royal purple, aqua, black and white). She doesn’t watch space or Sci-fi movies; she just admires space and colors of the galaxies. Hearts would be a great quilting motif for her, if it fits in.

We need a coordinator, quilter and binder for this quilt.

2. S.N.: Her favorite color is blue and she loves dogs.

We need a coordinator for this quilt.

We do have a bunch of blue and white HSTs and yardage, so there is a lot of fabric available.

Does anyone have a blue dog print for the back? We are soliciting donations of a print from the Blue Carolina line.

3. J.B.: She likes pink, black, and white. She is fascinated with Paris and most of her projects have this theme.

If you have other black and white or pink fabrics, and especially Paris fabrics in those colors (ish) that you could donate, please send an email to Elle

Tanya found a great Rifle Paper Co. print to contribute. We need a quilter for this quilt.

5. Y.G.: talks about wanting to do her room in “beach theme” with blues, purples, aquas... colors similar to that.

Amy C. was thinking that this one would be good for the beachy theme because it is Island Batiks, but if someone else would like to coordinate this one in colors that are more what Y.G. requested, it is up for grabs!

It will also need quilting.

6. S.M.: She is not super girly - so no bright pink but other than that I think any colors would be fine. She’s pretty trendy and very assertive!

This top by Amy C. is ready to go.

We need a quilter for it

7. Y.C.M.: She loves the color blue and enjoys cooking. Other colors are pink, lighter purples and some seafoam colors. I think items with music themes would be nice but other themes of hearts, butterflies, etc would be good as well.

Amy C. is going to piece this top, since she is her mentee, but would appreciate help with quilting!

8. G.Z.M.: LOVES mint green with white/silver, seems to be into other Pastel type colors (like blue, purple, turquoise). She loves being creative-art, dance, painting and loves basketball. She chose a geometric pattern for her clay project last week. Also really likes flower pictures. Overall, she isn’t too flashy with what she likes, maybe more like classically pretty things (eg: she talked about liking her fake marble looking phone case rather than a super glittery covered one 😂) and is super positive. I am sure anything handmade with such thoughtfulness she will love!

We have this amazing queen-sized quilt made by Amy S., and I thought it might work, but if someone wanted to coordinate one that is an even better fit, that would be awesome!

Cindy also has this beautiful quilt that she is donating that might also be a good fit.

9. H.B.Z.: She is very sporty, so I think a quilt that maybe centers around soccer would be cool! She likes blue and purple.

Robin will make this quilt - thanks, Robin!

10. I.B.: My mentee loves pink, I know that. She also loves soccer and plays the violin. But I do think she likes "girly" things.

I think Laurie's pink quilt would be perfect for her, and it is complete! Thanks, Laurie, for donating this hand-quilted beauty!

11. D.R.L.: She loves pinks and purples. She is quiet and innocent.

I think this one by Amy C. will be great, and she is already partially done with the quilting!

12. A.R.: She is into anime and Pokemon. She is quiet but does like to draw and talk with friends. She appears quite reserved. I would like to give her a quilt that speaks of hope and sunshine, and caring. I hope that just by receiving a gift from the guild she would feel the caring of the person who made the quilt. Now then what kind of pattern and colors this could be turned into is a much harder question.

I was thinking that this gorgeous quilt by Gretchen would work for A.R., but again, if someone else wants to coordinate this one instead if all the other coordinator spots fill up, I'm game!

13. H.A. We don't have a description yet for what H.A. is looking for.

This awesome rainbow quilt by Diana will work for her, as it is complete!

Thank you to those of you who have made it this far. We'll keep this blog post updated with progress as we get news.

If you have questions or would like to donate time, money or fabric to this project, please send an email to Elle at ellegtown@gmail.com!

We held the first meeting of the new year at Georgetown where the new Board members were introduced. Alyson Olander - President, Cassandra McKee - Vice President, Lynne Mackay-Atha - Treasurer, and Amy Childers - Secretary. Welcome everyone!

We have some exciting activities planned in 2018! Here is a quick recap of some of the discussion:

Guild needs to decide on 2 one day courses or 1 two day course. Survey to follow.

This has since been decided: 2 classes will be taught: "Layered Curve" and "Patchwork Doodle"

Location TBD

Elle has volunteered to coordinate charity quilts and is taking suggestions. A few charities were discussed. An organization that provides emergency items to children placed into foster home and also an organization that mentors 5th grade girls at risk of entering the juvenile system. It is called Space of Her Own and more information can be found at www.spaceofherown.org. Amy requested the Guild's assistance in making 13 quilts for the girls in the program. Details went out in an email but will also be posted to our blog.

Our 2018 Charity quilt has been quilted now it needs a name! (Update: the winning name is Regal Medallion!) Suggestions were written down throughout the day and a survey was sent for a vote. Robin, Lynne, and Sari have done an amazing job organizing, piecing and quilting. Thank you to everyone that participated in making blocks.

There was a lot to see in show and tell this month. Awesome job ladies!

Amy finished her glam clam top from the Latifaah Saafir workshop.

Diana finished a charity quilt she has been working on for a year.

Elle has completed a baby quilt top.

Lynne made a beautiful rainbow quilt.

Mari completed a baby quilt for a friend.

Ashley completed a baby quilt as well.

Laurie made a quilt similar to one she made before.

Our next meeting will be February 17th, 2018 at Rhizome DC. Look for more details soon. We hope to see you there!

Sunday, December 31, 2017

As we welcome in 2018, the board thought you might enjoy a look back at 2017.

Our 2017 board was Phyliss, Nisha, Erinn and Megan, with Alyson taking over for Nisha in October.

We set our monthly meeting days as the second Saturday of the month, rotating locations between DC, VA and MD. We met in Arlington, Alexandria, Vienna, Rockville, Bethesda, Hyattsville, Finch in Leesburg and the US Botanic Garden!

The DCMQG's most exciting event was the Arlington Arts CostumeLab Quilt Show, featuring quilts by DCMQG members. Coordinated by Carissa, Natalie and Robin from the guild with Jennifer and Joan from Arlington Arts. Next year's show will be February-April 2018.

We had workshops with Nancy Purvis, Violet Craft and Latifah Saafir, as well as a special dying workshop at the CostumeLab.

There were three mini workshops lead by DCMQG members, Frederick taught us the big stitch, Meli taught us the Sew Together Bag and Jessee taught us her Ring of Coffins

DCMQG was well represented at QuiltCon in Savannah and at the Mid Mod Quilt Retreat in Lancaster

We added another day to our DCMQG retreats! The Thursday option was very popular.

Registering for retreats and workshops was made easier with our new DCMQG Shop!

We had two charity campaigns this year. The 100 Quilts for 100 Kids headed up by Alyson and Personal Care ZipBags for Centers for Women from Domestic Abuse lead by Nisha.

Lynne and Robin designed and coordinated the packets for our QuiltCon2018 Charity Quilt.

Our bee groups were very active this year!

We have thoroughly enjoyed coordinating the events this year.

The fun
will continue with the dynamic 2018 board: Alyson-President, Cassandra-Vice President, Lynne-Treasurer, and Amy-Secretary.